The Untold Truth Of Rick Lagina From The Curse Of Oak Island

History’s long-running reality show “The Curse of Oak Island” is a lengthy dig into the mysteries and supposed treasures of the titular island. It’s also a fascinating look at the latest people to join the long, hitherto unsuccessful list of treasure hunters who have operated on Oak Island.

Regardless of your opinion about the existence of the huge secrets Oak Island is supposed to hide, it’s hard to deny that the people trying to uncover the hidden treasures are pretty fascinating. It takes a very special person to spend years and years of their life buried in research — and, all too often, mud — in their search for the next clue of a mysterious hoard that may or may not lie at the bottom of the legendary Money Pit.

One of these tenacious souls is Rick Lagina, one of the main players in “The Curse of Oak Island.” Who is this man, and how did he end up hunting the titular island’s rumored treasure? Let’s delve deeper into the untold truth of Rick Lagina from History’s “The Curse of Oak Island.”

He’s not always happy with the things the show focuses on

If the lengthy run of “The Curse of Oak Island” isn’t enough of a clue about its snail-like pace, anyone who has watched the show can attest that treasure-hunting is incredibly slow — and in an interview with Reality Blurred, Rick and Marty Lagina noted that the presence of the production crew makes things even slower. Rick also noted that there are some things about the show he’s not always entirely happy with. In particular, he’s not especially fond of the times the show’s needs force them to focus on some relatively trivial things that siderail their mission in favor of making good TV.

“Some of the things we’ve done — the marginal things — we’ve expanded on those or been more aggressive on them because the show needs content,” he noted.

On the whole, Lagina almost seems to consider the show a mixed blessing that arrived on the doorstep uninvited, even though he was quick to note that there are considerable upsides to the publicity.

“The truth is, on a personal level, we didn’t seek this show out,” he said. “We had already been engaged in the search process for three years or more before the show approached us. It kind of intrudes on your personal life. But the upside, again, is that we welcome the fact that people come to the island. We’ve opened up the island for tourists. It’s gratifying to know that people have bought into this mystery almost as we have.”

The wealth of Rick Lagina

“The Curse of Oak Island” features a whole bunch of expensive equipment, as History UK notes. How, exactly, does Rick Lagina afford all of that stuff? After all, his backstory is that he’s a retired postal worker who became fascinated with Oak Island after reading about it at the tender age of 11. There’s a bit of a gap between “used to be a postal worker” and “co-runs a major excavation operation that controls much of Oak Island,” and the fact that Lagina prefers to keep his personal life personal doesn’t exactly help understanding the situation.

Of course, much of this is explained by the fact that his brother and “The Curse of Oak Island” co-star Rick Lagina is a multi-millionaire businessman, and is thought to be the majority financer of the operation, while Marty is the one whose lifelong fascination with the island’s secrets inspired them to start their Oak Island excursion in the first place.

Don’t think that the brothers fall into the easy tropes of a broke dreamer and a wealthy financier, though. Much like Marty can be very hands-on with the Oak Island project, Rick’s far from poor. In fact, many estimations indicate that the older Lagina’s reality show stardom has brought a pretty hefty windfall, and his current net worth is thought to range somewhere between $2 million (History UK’s estimation) and as much as $10 million (via Celebrity Net Worth). So, in a roundabout way, he’s already found treasure on Oak Island.